Research overview: cat facial expressions in social contexts

Cats produce a range of facial movements, and research increasingly treats these as communicative signals. This overview surveys work cataloguing feline facial expressions in affiliative, defensive and agonistic contexts, including studies of cat-to-cat facial signalling and human ability to read cat faces. It discusses the development of anatomically based coding systems for feline facial action and how subtle changes in eyes, ears and mouth convey emotional state. The survey considers evidence that humans, especially those with cat experience or training, can interpret some feline facial cues, and how this matters for welfare assessment and the human-cat relationship. By organizing findings on facial signalling, the survey counters the view that cats are inexpressive and highlights the fine-grained facial communication accessible to attentive observers.